08/27/2026
This is a digitized page from John Fredrick Schneider’s 1866 diary. John Frederick was a farmer and millwright in North Aurora, as well as the grandfather of this library’s namesake, Emeline Messenger. MPL’s historical records have John Frederick’s father, German millwright John Peter Schneider, settling this area around 1834, which means Isaac VanFleet was also one of the early settlers to arrive in North Aurora. At that time, Potawatomi tribe members still lived in the area. Beginning in 1835, the remaining tribal bands of the Three Fires Council were forcibly moved west of the Mississippi. Federal surveys of land in Illinois had been underway since 1804 and were mostly completed by 1843.
Tips for reading old handwriting:
Read the entire entry quickly for context. Zoom in/out to see letters better. Find obvious words and skip over what you don’t know. Note quirks in writing/spelling/punctuation, which were not taught in school until the 1920s. Read out loud: speaking a word can help surface common words with strange spellings (example: “Funrel”).
👇 See the first comment for transcription.
